Automated breast cancer detection by thermography : performance goal and diagnostic feature identification

This paper presents the methodology used for establishing a performance goal and identifying the diagnostic features in a program to develop an automated system for breast cancer detection based on thermographic principles. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve approach is used to evaluate both observer classification and classification rules based on an observer's evaluation of diagnostic features. The multivariate logistic function is applied to two sets of observer evaluated feature sets using 623 normal and 122 breast cancer diagnosed subjects. It is shown that the observer outperforms the multivariate logistic function classifier based on the diagnostic features.